Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) Pune City Chief Prashant Jagtap said Ajit Pawar faction supporters, along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers, were involved in the attack on senior journalist Nikhil Wagle in Pune while he was en route to attend the 'Nirbhay Bano' public meeting organised by Rashtra Seva Dal in the Dandekar Bridge area on Friday.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Jagtap shared a video of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in which he claimed that not a single worker of his was involved in the attack on Wagle. “Not a single worker of my party was involved in the attack. Those who are making allegations should speak facts. After the attack, I spoke to the Pune police commissioner and the additional commissioner. I have told them to take action against those involved in the attack," he said.
In the same post, Jagtap shared a picture of Datta Sagre, visibly kicking the car. Jagtap stated that Sagre, who has since been arrested, holds the position of Vice President within the Ajit Pawar faction in Pune City.
Later, while speaking to a newspaper, Jagtap said, "I have been active in the political field for the past 27 years and I have not seen such a brazen attack on anybody in this city. It was a preplanned attack on Wagle to kill him. Police had the information but they should have made better arrangements.”
Recently, Jagtap was chosen as the candidate for the Hadapsar Assembly seat elections by the Sharad Pawar faction, likely to be held in October-November this year. Chetan Tupe, representing the Ajit Pawar faction, currently serves as the MLA from Hadapsar, having defeated BJP's Yogesh Tilekar in the 2019 Assembly elections.
